BXBX NOVEL Chapter 98 - The Only Suspect
Jonas knew that Shun was gauging Azaroth and planned to gather more information, so he stayed silent.
Shun replied to Azaroth's words, "The tasks assigned by the King are always rather troublesome. Just like the one he assigned me right now."
"I am curious about this task. Can I help in any way?" Azaroth spoke slowly.
Shun casually spoke, "The King ordered me to find an Elf who has been abducted by a demon from the Silent Death Organization's prison."
Azaroth showed a surprised expression, "A demon has abducted an Elf from the Silent Death Organization? Then why did you come here?"
"We came here on my request, young master Edwin." Shun calmly replied to Azaroth's question.
He added, "After all, it was you who abducted that Elf from the prison of the Silent Death Organization."
Those words were spoken so calmly and confidently as if Shun had no doubt about his deduction.
Even Azaroth faltered as he heard those words.
'Did I miss something in my calculations? Does he have some evidence pointing at me?'
Even though Azaroth was nervous, he controlled his heartbeat and showed a startled expression. But it quickly vanished after a second and spoke, "What an amusing joke, Inquisitor Fox. Do you have any proof?"
Shun noticed his startled expression and also how quickly he calmed down.
"Sure. If you don't mind, how about you show us the mansion. The evidence will easily pop out." Shun spoke quite casually.
Azaroth had expected them to investigate the mansion and was prepared for it. He had already made sure to clean all the clues.
"Follow me then."
Azaroth spoke to Jonas and Shun.
As they were walking, Shun began talking, "It was a little more than 2 months ago when Marquis Rhodes returned to the Rhodes Mansion. Where did you go 3 days before the day Marquis Rhodes returned."
Azaroth was prepared for this question.
"I was in my room, cultivating as always. I also spent some time training my retainers." Azaroth spoke calmly.
However, Shun was prepared for such a response as well, "That's surprising. Because the maids and the servants in the Rhodes House mentioned that they saw no sign of you in the mansion."
Azaroth remained silent for a short period and shrugged, "Maybe they mixed up the days. I went to drink in the bar the next day."
"Interesting. So this is what happened?" Shun spoke with a surprised tone.
Azaroth didn't understand why he looked surprised. Shun added while maintaining that surprised tone, "I was actually kidding. The servants mentioned you were in the mansion the whole time. I wonder why you lied about it."
Azaroth paused for a short moment. He thought while staring at Shun 'This guy… He just wants to annoy me.'
There was a cold look in his eyes and he asked, "When you are asked questions by a creepy man, it's my basic instinct to either avoid them or speak lies? Also, why does it matter if I was in my room or not?"
Shun carefully observed Azaroth. He internally thought 'He once again gave a tricky response. It makes him appear suspicious but if I continue questioning him based on it then I am bound to end up with nothing.'
Shun decided to change his approach slightly, "Why? Because that's the day incident occurred. If you weren't in your room, it only makes you more suspicious, doesn't it?"
Azaroth rolled his eyes in return, "Weren't you planning to show me the proof? Why don't you just get on the main point?"
Shun replied, "You are right. I was just amusing myself."
Soon, they opened a room. It was an empty room with just a bed, table, and some chairs.
Shun observed the room carefully before speaking, "There is nothing to see here. Show the next room."
Soon, they inspected each room in the mansion.
After checking 10's of rooms, there was a room that finally caught Shun's eyes.
He immediately went towards the bed and began to look around.
Azaroth was shocked when he saw this. It was because this was the room Laura had stayed in.
'Is this a coincidence that he is carefully searching Laura's room? No… I can't just attribute it to coincidence. He must have noticed something, but what? Did I really miss something while cleaning all their traces?'
Azaroth observed the room carefully and wondered just what was different from the other rooms.
His eyes soon widened as the answer appeared in his head.
'It's the different texture of the wood. In her attempt to remove all traces of her presence here, Laura had slightly changed the texture. It seems darker in some parts and lighter in other parts. It's as it has been changed recently.
'However, once Azaroth realized this, he calmed down. He knew that this wasn't proof enough that he was the one keeping Laura.
"Finally found it," Shun spoke as he stood up.
Azaroth frowned at those words and wondered what he meant.
Shun turned towards Azaroth. He showed a long strand of golden hair in his hands and spoke, "Do you have anything to say about this?"
This time, Azaroth was truly shocked.
'No way… I made sure to personally clean this room of all clues. There is no way this strand of hair was left behind.'
Shun looked quite pleased as he saw Azaroth's shocked expression.
Shun softly spoke, "It would be best if you bring out that Elf, young master Edwin. Your father is here and we can work out a scheme to prevent your name from coming up in this investigation."
Azaroth looked at Shun and then at the Golden Hair.
He understood what was going on.
'This is another bluff. This hair is something he prepared beforehand by gathering the information about Laura from Silent Death Organization and planned to shake me mentally by using it. And then, he gives me a sweet opportunity to escape all charges if I join hands with him.'
Azaroth sneered in his mind 'Does he think he can fool me with schemes?'
"How can this be?! Inquisitor Fox, I have no idea about this hair. Either it came in from outside the window or someone planted it here to frame me." Azaroth replied with the same surprised expression.
Shun wasn't surprised to hear Azaroth deny it.
"No thief would admit to stealing something," Shun replied while snorting.
Azaroth remained silent for some time as he looked at Shun. He then spoke with a calm face, "You are right, Inquisitor Fox. It's impossible to prove that this hair is something I had no idea of but can you prove that it belongs to the Elf you are searching for?"
Shun's eyes widened at that response. He had expected multiple responses but this was the least likely one.
A smile soon appeared behind his face 'If you are truly hiding that Elf here then I truly respect you for remaining calm and actually finding the correct response in this situation.'
"…You are right," Shun whispered and felt a sense of defeat welling up in him.
"Please search the other rooms as well. Maybe you can find similar hair, Inquisitor Fox." Azaroth spoke with a sarcastic look.
Jonas looked at Shun and then at Azaroth. He personally knew Shun's intelligence and placed it on an equal or even higher pedestal than himself. However, today, he saw Shun experiencing a loss at his son's hands.
The three soon went to search in the other rooms. This time, Shun did find similar rooms where the texture was different but he didn't use the same trick.
He knew it wouldn't work now at all.
They soon met up with Ralph, Noah, and Sargan.
Shun first glanced at Jonas and gave him a signal. He then looked at Ralph, Noah, and Sargan, "Do you recognize this hair?" He showed them a Golden Hair.
All three of them remained calm.
"Whose hair is it? Mine is definitely not this long." Noah spoke as he looked at that hair. He then asked Shun, "Did you find it in Master's room? Strange. How come I never saw a woman here. Did you see anyone, Sargan?"
Sargan shook his head and said, "Nopes. Besides, there are only low-class women in this town. They are the wives of the laborers or farmers. I doubt young master fancied any of them."
Shun definitely wasn't expecting such responses from Noah and Sargan. The two just went on to speak complete nonsense.
Soon, Shun shook his head and looked at Jonas, "Let's search outside."
The two continued to search the entire area. They even asked the people but no one had seen Laura, Yrellea, or Tiana.
This was something Azaroth had made sure since he hired these farmers or laborers. Laura, Tiana, and Yrellea were strangers to them.
The genuine responses from these men began to truly confuse Shun. He was slowly getting doubtful of his deductions.
"Let's search the forest." He finally spoke.
He remembered that Laura was hidden in the forest until she was moved away by that demon. Perhaps it was the same case here.
As they were moving towards the forest, only Azaroth joined Jonas and Shun.
While they were walking, Jonas asked Azaroth, "Where are the guards you brought along from Rhodes House?"
Azaroth replied almost immediately, "They are all dead, father. They defended the fields from the beasts that would launch an attack randomly. After slaying multiple beasts, they finally died due to their heavy injuries. I hired these guards and am training them to keep up the numbers. The morale of the citizens would be affected greatly if they knew that there are no guards anymore."
Azaroth finished giving this story. He was even ready to pull out the corpses of the beasts and his guards if Jonas wanted proof. He had made sure that their bodies would seem as if they had been attacked by the beasts and died.
Jonas didn't look satisfied with the answer but he remained silent.
Azaroth asked him curiously, "Why were you suspicious of me? Would you care to explain, father?"
Shun looked at Jonas and gave him a nod. Jonas let out a sigh and began to speak, "In reality, you are the only suspect."
"I am the only suspect?" Azaroth narrowed his eyes at those words.
"That's correct. The drastic change you have experienced must have been related to meeting someone who began to instruct you. You were among the only individuals who couldn't be inspected by the Merchant Union or the Silent Death Organizations. The time of your departure from Rhodes Mansion for Kloras Town coincides with the time when the Elf was taken out of the Wrihull City by the demon." Jonas kept on listing out the reasons.
Azaroth heard them all and then spoke, "…Father, all the clues you spoke of also makes me suspicious of myself. But think about it. What would I gain if I make a deal with the demon? The entire world knows that it's pure foolishness to trust a demon. If a demon ever comes and offers me power, the first thing I will do is accept his offer and the second thing would be to inform you about it so that you can deal with it."
These words were spoken genuinely by Azaroth. As a former demon, he was utterly sure that the promise of power by the demon was just a trap.
Jonas looked confused as he indeed saw the logic in Azaroth's words.
Shun heard Azaroth's words and just shook his head. Azaroth was trying to use common sense to prove his innocence. But Shun knew that common sense wasn't so common.
However, if he debated with Azaroth on this topic, they may argue for hours and yet come up with no winner or loser.